Governor Hochul Announces Comprehensive Plan to Fix New York State's Continuum of Mental Health Care

Last week, Governor Kathy Hochul announced, as part of the 2023 State of the State, a comprehensive plan to overhaul New York's continuum of mental health care and drastically reduce the number of individuals with unmet mental health needs throughout the state.

The multi-year plan includes increasing operational capacity by 1,000 beds for inpatient psychiatric treatment, creating 3,500 units of housing to serve New Yorkers with mental illness, increasing insurance coverage for mental health services, dramatically expanding outpatient services, and creating systemic accountability for hospital admissions and discharges to better address the needs of individuals suffering with mental illness. These proposals, over time, will reflect more than $1 billion in investment in mental health.

Part of her extensive plan to realign the state's approach to mental health includes expanding mental health services for school-aged children. To achieve this, Governor Hochul proposes expanding access to mental health services in schools by increasing Medicaid payment rates for school-based satellite clinics and school-based wraparound services, to incentivize further development of this critical care.

In addition, the Governor will introduce legislation requiring commercial insurance providers to pay for school-based services at a level equal to the higher paying Medicaid rate, to ensure timely access for all children. The plan also outlines an annual investment to provide the start-up funding necessary to get new and expanded school services in operation quickly.

To read the Governor's full plan for addressing mental health in the state, CLICK HERE.

To learn more about the value of SBHCs for behavioral health, view our behavioral health program HERE.